Is Transitioning Harmful To Prospective Trans Lesbians?

I recently read this post which argued that “straight men who deeply wish they were gay women” shouldn’t transition. Eneasz Brodski argues that straight men who deeply wish they were gay women fundamentally want to have bodies that will attract lesbians, and that transition tech is inadequate. Instead, they should embrace their masculinity, which will allow them to be sexually desired by straight women.

I think his advice is likely harmful to prospective trans lesbians.

Some Trans Lesbians Have Dysphoria

Brodski writes:

[By AGP¹ males I mean straight guys who deeply wish they were gay women. This doesn’t apply to anyone who doesn’t fit that description.]…

Taking hormones is cheap, and all it does for most men is give us a trans body. Acceptable if one is dysphoric and needs to not be in their natal-sex body. But a cruel joke for AGP males.

I’m unsure whether, by “straight guys who deeply wish they were gay women” and “AGP males,” Brodski intends to refer to all prospective trans lesbians or merely a subset. If it’s the latter, I’m sorry about this section.

If it’s the former… most trans lesbians are in fact dysphoric, in a very common-sense sort of way. They experience depersonalization and derealization symptoms; they feel phantom body parts; they are repulsed by their sexed body parts; they feel odd and uncomfortable around men and strangely at home among women, especially queer women; they subconsciously pick up elements of female socialization, from body language to beauty standards to shame about being bad with babies. As Brodski agrees, social and biomedical transition offer relief of dysphoria.

Even if Brodski intended to refer to only some prospective trans lesbians, many dysphoric trans lesbians mistakenly believe they’re not dysphoric. If you’ve had depersonalization symptoms for your entire life, for example, it’s easy to round them off to “just the way life is.”² And certainly many dysphoric prospective trans lesbians attribute their social dysphoria to manhood being an inherently terrible thing that any reasonable person would flee as quickly as possible.³ Before claiming that transition won’t solve someone’s problems, you should at least check whether they have problems other than wanting to have sex with lesbians.